Weak governance has bred hunger in region

Governments are constituted – whether through an election or a revolution – to secure the basic welfare of its people.

The devastating hunger in eastern Africa is testimony to the decisions the world makes. It amounts to the genocide perpetrated by the world.

The food insecurity is blamed on prolonged drought, the worst in more than 60 years, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). That is not in doubt!

In a region where about 12 million people face starvation, the world has come to rely on charity to keep alive the population – mostly pastoralists and nomads – that lives in the expansive desert and semi-desert ecosystems.

What makes the situation look like genocide is the world’s passivity to the civil strife in the affected states. Somalia is synonymous with humanitarian catastrophes. It has been at war with itself for nearly 20 years. In the same period, Ethiopia has been struggling with internal rebellion and a border war with Eritrea.

Neighbouring countries are forced to absorb the conflicts, which translate to extra cost in terms of security and other humanitarian needs.

The drain on meagre resources on countries that host refugees is reflected in how countries like Kenya cannot respond to their own challenges.

The international community can do more than watch silently as populations are condemned to prolonged suffering.

Worse, WFP warns, the region risks losing a whole generation through intellectual redundcancy. Pursuit of knowledge ranks lower in the widely acclaimed psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of basic needs.

Writing in Refugees International magazine, the organisation’s President Michel Gabaudan observes: "Droughts can be mitigated and controlled when a nation has a functioning government. Look at Somalia’s neighbour, Ethiopia."

The crisis in the Horn of Africa is a consequence of collective international indifference – not dissimilar to the world’s antipathy toward events that precipitated the 1994 Rwanda Genocide – to the conflict in Somalia, which has had far-reaching economic impact in the region.

The Ottawa Citizen captures the situation in the Horn of Africa more succinctly: "If there were a competent government ruling a peaceful Somalia, the consequences of the drought would be very different....the famine shows that Somalia’s near-anarchy comes with horrific consequences.

If we want to prevent future famines there, either al-Shabaab must be taken out to make room for the UN-backed government, or al-Shabab must evolve into some approximation of a legitimate government." These truths cannot be overstated.

At the present, humanitarian relief agencies say another major problem the northern pastoralists is emerging. Insecurity has given a fillip to soaring food prices.

WFP says the price of maize and other grains has tripled over the last year, which is, of course, an extra burden for them.

The organisation expressed concern the current volatility and speculation around food prices is making famine prevention much more difficult.

As result of the volatile security situation in the Horn of Africa, WFP says as long as early warning does not translate into early action, an African drought can easily turn into a famine.

The question of governance therefore is one that the world must confront if the cycle of food deficits and the attendant human suffering is to be broken.

It is genocidal to attempt to explain the hunger in eastern Africa as a function of adverse climatic swings when it is well-known fact that weak governance and police instability in the Horn of Africa are the two ghosts that must be exorcised urgently.

Whatever the cost, the international community must begin to address these conflicts seriously. Otherwise a food security meeting such as the one Kenya plans to host amid adversity counts for nothing. Early warning must lead to early action.